[LEMONS] 7.13.2003
Sixteen Words
My dad gave me a shortwave radio to take with me to Asia. We used to listen to it every morning in Muang Ngoi--Harper, Geoff, Nina, Nikki and myself. We would fire it up over strong cups of Laos coffee, and wait for the morning fog to lift on a platform overlooking the river, sipping and listening to the BBC and VOA news broadcasts.I have a vivid memory of us huddled over the radio, Geoff in his grey flannel jacket from Kashmir, listening to the State of the Union address. Listening for rumors of war. And when we heard the address, we knew war was coming. That there was no avoiding it.
I remember being struck by his evidence of Iraq's WMD program--a program I had little doubt existed. The message that Hussein had a nuclear program currently in the works was particularly disturbing. Bush said:
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.
I also remember being surprised by Geoff, a helicopter pilot from British Colombia, who thought we did need to go into Iraq. That Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the West.
And there on the riverbanks we feared for our world.
But now we know better. We know that the aluminum tubes were bullshit. We know that in September, the CIA plead with the British government not to use the Niger data, because it was bogus and we knew it. We know that four days after the State of the Union Powell left it out of his speech to the UN, because it was bogus and we knew it. We know that Bush had to attribute the data to the British, because it was bogus and we knew it. We know that the CIA now says the reference never should have been in the speech, because it was bogus and we knew it.
And so now what I want to know is--on that cold January morning when we listened to a voice from thousands of miles across oceans and mountains--why were we deceived? Why did Bush, in the midst of his constitutionally mandated address to the nation, utter these Clintonian words; words which were at once factually correct and completely untrue.
(And if all this leaves you a bit confused, see this article in Time for an overview, and stay tuned to the Washington Post, which has had the best coverage to date of the scandal.)
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